If federal prosecutors file criminal charges as rumored against SAC Capital Advisors -- one of the world's most profitable hedge funds and one of Southwest Connecticut's economic and philanthropic engines -- local stakeholders will be watching the historic legal drama unfold with all sorts of opinions.

For maybe a decade, Stamford-based SAC Capital has helped underwrite two of the DSSD's landmark events each year: the summertime collection of 40 or so sculptures that spruce up the downtown and the pre-Thanksgiving Parade balloon-inflation extravaganza, which attracts thousands of guests.

Both events cost well over $100,000 -- SAC doesn't pick up the entire tab at either -- and represent the sort of philanthropy that the embattled 57-year-old multibillionaire Steven A. Cohen bestows on several local organizations such as Stamford Hospital and the city's Mill River park project, Goldstein said.

"These are extremely good corporate citizens," Goldstein added. "For them as individuals to have their names dragged through the mud this way is really distasteful."

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission initiated a civil action against Cohen, seeking penalties for allegedly failing to stop illegal insider trading by two of his employees. Any decision by the government to seek an indictment of the company would be the capstone to a decade-long insider-trading investigation and could deal a blow to the Fairfield County economy as well as the company's approximately 1,000 employees.

No survivors

Indeed, no major financial firm has survived criminal indictment. The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a list of six such high-profile instances dating back to the mid '80s: Three firms were sold, one filed for bankruptcy, one was merged and the most recent -- Arthur Anderson, convicted of obstruction in the Enron investigation -- led to a demise costing some 28,000 jobs.

"I haven't seen any details, so I can't comment on the merits of the (SAC) investigation," said Laure Aubuchon, Stamford's director of economic development. "But it would indeed be unfortunate if people lost jobs."

SAC Capital employs "upwards of 1,000" people in Stamford, she said, and high-paying jobs at that. Citing one model for calculating the multiplier effect of employment, she said that high-paying finance jobs can create an aggregate of four times as many jobs -- for example, with waiters, bartenders, tailors, drivers, gardeners and more.

`No material effect'

Meanwhile, Bruce McGuire, president of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association, whose 1,500 individual members include some SAC employees, is watching the circling of lawyers from a slightly different perspective.

"Insider trading is against the law. It's not new and it is not a unique law (or problem to) the hedge fund profession," McGuire wrote Hearst Connecticut Newspapers by email Wednesday. "If (SAC Capital) closes, then it will have some limited effect (on the local economy) but not material, in my opinion."

Himes, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, declined comment because his committee has an SEC oversight role, and because of the pending criminal investigation. Blumenthal, who also served as a U.S. attorney as well as a two-decade stint as Connecticut's attorney general, also declined to comment, citing the ongoing probe.

Nor would newly minted SEC Chair Mary Jo White offer a comment on the case. White, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and former Wall Street lawyer, has sent signals that she wants to ramp up federal pressure on Wall Street, particularly in cases of alleged insider trading.

Greenwich impact

Any new criminal charges would be lodged by the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara.

While it's evident that Bharara and FBI investigators haven't been able to "flip" anyone at SAC Capital to finger Cohen, they have charged two high-flying fund managers from Cohen's empire, Mathew Martoma and Michael S. Steinberg, with insider trading. Both of denied the charges and are expected to go to trial in November.

Peter Tesei, the first selectman of Greenwich, spoke more broadly about the role of hedge funds in his town.

"Hedge funds play an integral role in the economic vitality of our town, in that not only do many of them domicile here, but their employees live here and are an integral part of the community life in supporting the community organizations, whether philanthropically, through schools or nonprofits," he said.

"Broadly speaking, anything impacting a large hedge fund and its vitality and ability to be successful, impacts the town of Greenwich."

Soundly situated in Goldstein's camp is state Sen. Scott Frantz, R-36, of Greenwich, who described the Cohens as very generous people who donate much of their wealth anonymously.

"Would it hurt the town of Greenwich and state of Connecticut and country if they shut them down? Absolutely," he said, citing the taxes paid by the firm and its highly compensated employees.

"If the state or country systematically starts shutting down business doing the heavy lifting for the rest of the people of Connecticut, it doesn't bode well for the country or the people of the state."